Lightning, Hail, and Power Outage Reports
(photo: Mike Eliason)
Edhat readers share their photos, videos, and reports from the intense storm that hit Santa Barbara on March 5, 2019. See them all below!
By Mike Eliason of Santa Barbara County Fire Department
Lightning strikes in the skies above Santa Barbara, CA, March 5, 2019, as seen in these views from Stearns Wharf.
Photo by @colinmccrindle
By an edhat reader
We set up a tripod on the roof and took a few hundred pics and selected the best to give to you. I am 12 years old and love photography.
By Sophie Cameron (daughter of HolaZola)
Lightning In Paradise, so photos shot from Goleta.
Photos by Yesenia Thomas
Captured from the top of Old San Marcos.
Video by Mark W.
By an edhat reader
Lightning in Isla Vista, Platform Holly hit. Monster cloud-to-cloud and cloud-to-ground lightning seen from Isla Vista.
Video by Sara G.
Video by Rey H.
Lightning strike near Mussel Shoals
Reported by edhat readers
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Is anyone else hearing that roaring thunder? We're on the westside and its every few minutes, getting deeper and almost rattling our windows.
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Intense lightning off the water.
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Strong winds and hail off Painted Cave.
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Lights flickering, some houses dark, off State and Sola Streets.
117 Comments
Thunder and lots of lightening. Hollister/Turnpike.
National Weather Service, Marine Warning: " At 648 PM PST, a severe thunderstorm capable of producing waterspouts was located over San Miguel Island. This storm will affect the Santa Barbara Channel through 730 PM PST. It will reach the coast near Goleta between 715 pm and 730 PM PST.
HAZARD...Waterspouts, wind gusts in excess of 50 knots, small hail..."
Thanks for posting. So it is that close. Been listening for at least 20 minutes; had to track that deep rumble. Windy is such a GREAT website! (I'm near La Cumbre /Foothill)
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https://www.windy.com/-Radar-lightning-radar?radar,34.367,-119.825,11
Oh, just heard the crack of lightning, it's here.
THIS IS DEADLY CLOUD TO GROUND ! Be carefull.
We thought someone was opening the doors to one of our stables on the south end of our property. We walked down to check, but quickly realized that it was thunder. The people staying in our guesthouse are from Argentina, and for them this is a ho-hum nothing event. Guess it is time to open up a bottle or two of wine and toast the weather: "Here is a toast to this weather...may it never rain on YOUR parade!!"
[email protected] minutes ago, If you want to see (on a map) where that strike you just heard was, here's a good site. Quite a show now offshore from Santa Barbara. https://www.lightningmaps.org/#m=oss;t=3;s=0;o=0;b=;ts=0;z=9;y=34.3037;x... …;
Hail and raining like hail on lower Old San Marcos.
"Thunderbolt and lightning, Very, very frightening me. (Galileo) Galileo. (Galileo) Galileo, Galileo Figaro
Magnifico-o-o-o-o. Mama Mia"
One was bright enough to briefly turn off the streetlight! Wonderful view out my front window looking toward the mountains.
NWS: "SIGNIFICANT WEATHER ADVISORY FOR SOUTHEASTERN SANTA
BARBARA COUNTY UNTIL 800 PM PST...At 723 PM PST, Doppler radar was tracking a cluster of strong thunderstorms across the Santa Barbara Channel. These storms will affect southeastern Santa Barbara County from Refugio State Beach to the city of Santa Barbara through 8 PM PST. Dime size hail and wind gusts up to 50 mph are possible with these storms. Brief heavy downpours are also expected.
Locations impacted include...Santa Barbara, Montecito, Santa Ynez, Refugio State Beach,
Isla Vista, Goleta and Lake Cachuma."
You guys, there is a gnarly band looks to be gaining strength and getting large, looks to come through in maybe 30, 40 minutes. Hunker down.
Looking at the NWS radar out of Vandenberg.
Much larger than the band that just went through. 50/50 chance. Approaching San Miguel now.
Lost Cox internet when the power went off for a moment about 7:35. Still out now, Olive @ De La Guerra
Hearing it real good near the Mission. Lots of brownouts. I’m outside under my patio cover waiting for the dime sized hail to start falling. I love severe weather! It reminds me of Nothern California and Kansas.
You may want to get inside in a bit. That band coming is concentrated and many, many times larger than what you're experiencing now. I'm up in Solvang and we are getting different bits and pieces. But she's coming for you.
I stepped inside for a bit when there was less than a 2 sec delay between the flash and thunder. I’m hoping that the St. Anthony’s Tower or the Mission is a good lightning rod. A few minutes ago I must have heard half a dozen emergency vehicles going somewhere north of the Mission.
There’s a big cell South West of the Channel Islands that should make things very exciting in about an hour.
Very strong lightning show! Saw a strike that was somewhere btwn. Old San Marcos Rd. and the Upper Patterson area around 7:20. Then a transformer up that way did the glow thing, power down near Wake Center was out for a few minutes. It was amazing sky to ground lightning!
ABC109, I'm following Windy.com. Link please? I already heard it closer.
Thanks for this live strike map =================================================================
https://www.lightningmaps.org/#m=oss;t=3;s=0;o=0;b=;ts=0;z=9;y=34.3037;x...
Go to the Doppler radar composite image at Vandenberg. We’ve got some strong stuff coming our way. Be careful. https://radar.weather.gov/radar.php?rid=vbx&product=NCR&overlay=11101111...
Roger, do you know where the emergency vehicles were going, per SHASTA GUY. North of Mission.
No everything went out here for awhile my cat is too scared to come back in and took off from me. I think they were looking for palm tree fires from lightening strikes.
That would be north of the SB Mission. They could have been going to San Roque or up Mission Canyon. The thunder is less than 2 sec after the lightning. I’m back outside again. That cell in the Channel coming our way will be a lifetime memory.
Where is KEYT ?
KEYT reports some fires: https://www.keyt.com/news/strong-storm-begins-assault-on-south-coast/105...
Usually when they could be most helpful to the community, KEYT news folks are home. And, the station is showing regular programming, with not even a message strip to keep people up to date
Thanks for all the links! If this comes over my head or even close, I'll be buried under the covers, almost certainly with my cat. :-) Ah, rain starting up again.
I forgot the exact time, but in the late 4 p.m. hour? It was as dark as 5 p.m., some showers, then the sun came out and a stunning complete rainbow was visible (from San Roque)? That was so beautiful. Others must have seen it, no?
If you need to take cover inside your home because of winds or tornado, go in your closet and put pillow over your head. Stay away from glass/windows, flying debris of any kind. Other option is get in bathtub and put mattress over you.
That big blob in the channel could be a big problem. Make sure you’re safe.
Flood Advisory
National Weather Service OXNARD CA
830 PM PST TUE MAR 5 2019
CAC079-083-060730-
/O.NEW.KLOX.FA.Y.0055.190306T0430Z-190306T0730Z/
/00000.N.ER.000000T0000Z.000000T0000Z.000000T0000Z.OO/
Santa Barbara CA-San Luis Obispo CA-
830 PM PST TUE MAR 5 2019
The National Weather Service in OXNARD has issued a
* Flood Advisory for...
Santa Barbara County in southwestern California...
Southern San Luis Obispo County in southwestern California...
* Until 1130 PM PST.
* At 822 PM PST, National Weather Service Doppler radar and
automated rain gauges indicated moderate to heavy rain with
embedded thunderstorms moving over Santa Barbara County this
evening. Rainfall rates between 0.33 to 0.50 inch per hour have
been observed. Roadway flooding and flooding of small creeks and
streams is likely. Minor mud and debris are possible near the
Thomas, Whittier and Sherpa burn areas.
* Some locations that will experience flooding include...
Santa Maria... Santa Barbara...Lompoc...Montecito...Santa Ynez...
Carpinteria...Solvang...Cuyama...Goleta...Guadalupe...Buellton...
and the Thomas...Whittier and Sherpa burn areas.
eh. stay put. watch it from inside. Please.
I sugar coated my response: DON'T!!
I just saw many strikes in the direction of the Mesa. It must be very exciting over there
This is so informative and amazing (and cool): Real Time Lightning Map (Thanks, poster!) Interesting for SB to be the focal point of CA coastal weather. N. CA sure needs a break. _____________________________
Strokes of the last 60 minutes are shown. The real-time data comes directly from the computing servers of Blitzortung.org, which are fed by hundreds of stations on several continents. The delay is calculated from the time stamps of each strokes compared to the current time.
Legend:
New lightning strikes have a red circle which gets smaller and disappears when it gets older than 60 seconds.
The color of filled circles represent the age of strikes up to 60 minutes. New strikes are yellow. The older they get, the darker the color. Dark brown is equal to almost 60 minutes. Those strikes will vanish soon.
On higher zoom levels the thunder front of current strikes is shown as white transparent growing circle (speed of sound). It gets more transparent while travelling and disappears after a while.
IMPORTANT: This map is intended for entertainment purposes only! _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________https://www.lightningmaps.org/#m=oss;t=3;s=0;o=0;b=;ts=1;z=11;y=34.3959;...
Great photos!!!
At 8:51pm,
Daniel Swain.Verified account @Weather_West.19m19 minutes ago. "Line of very intense thunderstorms about to slam Santa Barbara. Appears to be associated with bow echo signature on radar, so damaging winds possible in addition to continuous lightning and torrential rainfall. Pretty wild for these parts..". #CAwx
holy moly! I've lived here over 50 years, I know how rare thunderstorms are here! wow...
Dr. Swain's twitter: https://twitter.com/Weather_West
Time to go inside. Less than a second delay on some of those lightning strikes. We just had a strike on our block
I should've been watching out my bathroom window the whole time, lol. Can hardly imagine the Mesa show!
from what I'm seeing & hearing I'm not sure the real time lightning map is keeping up!
Lightning and instantaneous thunder on TV Hill at 8:52 pm
Cat has taken a defensive position - under the bed
Our cats are remarkably unconcerned. There's no predicting cat behavior, I guess.
Mine just wants to be with me, if only in the same room. She sure noticed it, but did not retreat under the couch.
Does the defensive position convey a clear warning against putting your hand under the bed, or is it just hiding in terror?
Cat is totally freaked out -- catatonic.
I empathize. Would cat take comfort from you? Had a dog who bloodied himself tearing at doors to get away, but wouldn't open his eyes for thunder if I was with him. My current cat is so bonded and loves affection so much that she came to me. But she's not freaking out, just unsettled. And you're a lot closer to the storm. If you need comfort... She'll be fine, you have to let her be. Which would be painfully hard for me. Or you could sit by her and just talk, I did that a few times during the thunder.
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